Racing Centre

DAVID SIMCOCK is hoping Hazzard County can make a good season even better by running a big race in the bet 365 Best Odds Guaranteed On Every handicap this Saturday.

Newmarket’s final meeting of the season begins tomorrow - Friday, November 2 - before the curtain comes down 24 hours later with three Listed races and a £20,000 handicap to whet the appetite.

Locally-based trainer Simcock is targeting the latter event as he seeks to add to an already impressive wins tally of 21 for the year.

In the previous three campaigns, Simcock had registered 20 winners overall. But he has exceeded that in the past 10 months alone to confirm that he is a trainer who is very much on the upgrade.

Simcock said: “I’m absolutely delighted with the way the year has unfolded. It has been by far and away my best year. Until 2007, the most winners we’d had in a season was nine.

In past campaigns, Simcock had largely looked to sharper two-year-old types to put his name in lights. But a more patient approach has really paid off in spades over the past eight or nine months as he explained.

“Since we started in 2004, this has been the first time that we’ve had a group of three-year-olds and older horses that could be competitive in handicaps,” he comments. “It’s turned out that I’ve been able to race them on a regular basis and they’ve run well, which has been really rewarding for us.”

Hazzard County has already contributed to that winners’ tally of 21 thanks to his maiden triumph at Lingfield in the spring. He has gone on to run a series of fine races without managing to get his head in front again but it would be little surprise if he were there or thereabouts on Saturday.

Simcock said: “In my opinion he should have won more races than he has. He has been unlucky two or three times, not through his own fault but the way he has to be ridden.

“But he is in very good order after his break in mid-season. In May he was perhaps too weak to get a mile but there are no problems with that now. My biggest concern is that ideally he wants fast ground; I’m hoping it will be at least good - if not good to firm in places - for Saturday.”

Friday’s eight-race card begins at 12.15 with the feature being EBF Bosra Sham Fillies Stakes, a Listed event over six furlongs for two-year-olds.

By Tony Rushmer